PEFL to invest $ 3 mn in design centre

Bangalore, Apr 9 (UNI) The UK-based Pavers England Footprints Ltd (PEFL) will be investing US Dollar three million in its design centre to be set up in Chennai, PEFL Chairman Stuart Paver said today.

Talking to newspersons here, to announce his company's foray into Indian footwear sector through a tie-up with Reliance Footprint, a format of Reliance Retail Ltd, he said it would be for the first time that the company was making investment in designing and within next three years it was expected to produce 20 million designs. The company, attempting to capture a sizable market share in India, will be investing US Dollar 10 million in next three years, for manufacturing footwear in India, he added.

He said there is no possibility of opening footwear production centre in India at present, but manufacturing would be distributed to different units.

PEFL Joint MD, Utsav Sath said the company had registered USD 400 million turnover last year and a sales growth of 20 per cent.

Stating that the UK retail sector was estimated at US Dollar 500 billion, contributing to eight per cent of the GDP, Mr Utsav said ''UK companies are keen to invest in India in retail business.'' Reliance Footprint Ltd Chief Executive Gopalkrishna said Reliance was the first store in India to house the products of Pavers fastest growing footwear brand. It had proposed to have a pan India presence by opening over 35 specialty stores across metros and mini-metros within next 12 months, he added.